Outstanding Innovation is our annual campaign spotlighting the world’s most innovative brands.
This year, we unpack the strategies of those not just adapting to change, but actively shaping what’s next. Powered by 2025 Kantar BrandZ data and rich qualitative insights, we explore how these brands are finding new space and what you can learn from their disruptive innovations. Let’s begin with one of the Rising Innovative Brands—new or established brands that have entered onto our BrandZ database in the past two years.
In recent years, Clorox has turbo-charged its innovation work through two bold shifts. Where it previously targeted one-off solutions driven by a product-first mindset, the brand now focuses on building longer-term platforms that prioritize consumer needs. By deploying agile, AI-driven processes within this framework, Clorox has cut development time threefold, doubling its innovation output while reducing spending.
The company’s new agile approach involves focusing clearly on consumer tensions and desired outcomes, says Tad Kittredge, VP of marketing and innovation at The Clorox Company, and asking: “What’s the fastest way to deliver against those?” This has led to successes such as the Scentiva line, which Clorox developed after noticing demand for products with deep-cleaning power that didn’t leave homes “smelling like a cleaner”.
Image source - https://www.clorox.com/scentiva/
Prioritizing consumer needs through agile processes
A crucial factor has been the transition from a technology-first mindset to being “consumer-driven in everything that we do”. Rushing to adopt eye-catching solutions, Kittredge explains, can often mean adding features “that the consumer wasn’t really asking for”. In contrast, innovation meetings now often start with a TikTok video to encapsulate “who is the consumer, and what is the problem we’re here to talk about?”
The brand continuously tests its assumptions to assess how well it is meeting its goals. Kittredge finds it “really exciting” to see how quickly teams are now “learning, building and pivoting”.
From one-off innovations to long-term platforms
Another critical change has been “shifting from one-off innovations to bigger, stickier platforms,” says Kittredge. Clorox’s Scentiva line – which includes bleach, sprays, wipes and more – exemplifies how, rather than launching one product, the brand focused on addressing “a bigger tension area” where it could provide a meaningful difference, generating longer-term investment and driving ongoing awareness.
This allowed it to take the concept into numerous consumer segments, “while also updating scents and improving the products in our core offering”.
Support from AI tools
AI tools have been an important resource, providing a “really good view” of consumer tensions, says Kittredge, and allowing R&D to focus on “technology unlocks” that meet genuine needs. This has empowered the brand to make significant simplifications where it had previously “over-engineered” products or “put [its] energy into the wrong place”.
An AI suite of tools that Clorox refers to as Digital Core has also helped the company accelerate development by generating and ranking concepts. It means “you never start with a blank piece of paper,” says Kittredge. Though human creativity is still essential to “understand the why”.
Tips for innovators
- Keep learning
When adopting AI, Kittredge says a learning mindset is as important as mastering specific techniques. “Don't get comfortable with the tools, get comfortable with the 'how' and driving outcomes – because the tools are going to keep changing,” he says. “You have to keep flexing and learning and adapting.”
- Drive end-to-end thinking
When innovating, teams should be focused on the end-to-end solution to the extent that they’re “finishing each other's sentences,” says Kittredge. He jokes that “success is when you can't tell who the marketer, the R&D person, the supply chain person or the salesperson is”.
- Balance boldness with stability
While “innovation is the lifeblood of growth”, it’s important to balance bold steps into new technologies or categories with smaller-scale initiatives, says Kittredge: “It allows you to take the bigger leaps if you've got strength in your core.”
Bet with your conviction
Ultimately, brands must remember that “innovation is fueled by conviction”, Kittredge adds – not necessarily in a specific solution, but in the end goal.
There may be “1000 reasons why you should not do something,” he says, but success often “comes down to the person who finds that signal and has full conviction behind it”.
Learn from Outstanding Innovators 2025
Access all free content from this year’s Outstanding Innovation here. Discover the secrets to disruptive innovation, learn from the world’s most innovative brands and start planning your future-focused innovation strategy.
